In Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built published by Harper Collins (2003), Richard Tedlow devotes an entire chapter to what he characterizes as “searing” business insights. These are comparable with religious epiphanies, what George Fox described as an “opening,” what John Wesley described as a “shock of recognition.”

As Tedlow explains, the power and value of a “searing insight” are most evident when “one looks at the true giants of enterprise in the history of business in the United States…one sees repeatedly the central role played by visionary leadership with a crystal clear commitment to a corporate mission. For example:

Andrew Carnegie: “Cut the prices; scoop the market; run the mills full.”
George Eastman: “You push the button. We do the rest.”
Henry Ford: “It takes you there, and it brings you back.”

More recently, consider these:

Coca-Cola: “The Pause That Refreshes”
Intel: “Intel inside”
Johnson & Johnson: “Doctors Recommend Tylenol”
McDonald’s: “You deserve a break today…at McDonald’s”
Miller Lite: “Tastes Great!…Less Filling!”
The New York Times: “All the News That’s Fit to Print”
J.M. Smucker Company: “With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good.”
Southwest Airlines: “THE Low Fare Airline”
Walmart*: “Always the Low Price, Always.”

Now consider this excerpt in which Tedlow discusses Lou Gerstner’s insight, one that saved IBM after he was named chairman and CEO in 1993:

“Gerstner’s insight was fundamental. It is one from which every great company that finds itself in deep trouble can benefit today and tomorrow. He implicitly asked himself: How does IBM have to change in order to survive and prosper? But he also asked himself second, more profound question: What does IBM have to keep in order to survive and prosper? Gerstner’s searing insight was that there was rock-solid muscle under the fat of the company. That muscle had been developed during decades of Watson management. The muscle had to be further strengthened while the fat was worked off. To get rid of everything in a company that had dominated its world, which is what the pundits were urging, would have killed IBM.”

Do you have a “searing insight” that will guide and inform your company’s decisions and initiatives during the months and years to come? If not,  I presume to suggest that you check out Tedlow’s book.